HR 4821 Introduced
FY 2024 IER Spending
Back in July, Rep Simpson (R,ID) introduced HR 4821, the Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies [IER] Appropriations Act, 2024. The House Appropriations Committee published their Report on the bill. There is no specific cybersecurity funding mentioned in the bill. The bill does contain reduced funding for the Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (CSB). The Report discusses several chemical safety initiatives.
Cybersecurity
Cybersecurity spending in the legislation is lumped into operational spending accounts and is only mentioned in passing. For example, on pages 52-3 under the heading of ‘Working Capital Fund’ for the Department of the Interior, the bill explains:
“For the operation and maintenance of a departmental financial and business management system, data management, information technology improvements of general benefit to the Department, cybersecurity, and the consolidation of facilities and operations throughout the Department, $89,758,000, to remain available until expended….”
In the Committee’s Report, there is one specific discussion (pgs 58-9) about cybersecurity research under the heading of ‘Research: National Priorities’:
“The bill provides $1,475,000 for advancing full scale applied research and testing capabilities to address threats to drinking water and drinking water infrastructure, including cybersecurity research, weatherization equipment, SCADA control systems, and water tanks at Water Security Test Bed facilities. Specifically, funding is provided for continuing and ongoing operations as well as the Agency’s proposed Phase 1 and Phase 2 projects to expand capabilities to support cybersecurity research at the Water Security Test Bed facility.”
CSB Spending
The Chemical Safety Board spending is listed as a separate item in the bill on page 121, setting the budget for the Board in 2024 at $12,960,000. Page 96 of the Report compares that spending to both the President’s budget request for the Board and the amount authorized for FY 2023:
Budget request - $17,400,000
FY 2023 - $14,400,000
So, the bill significantly reduces the amount of funding for the CSB. The only comment in the report on that the funding level is for ‘Salaries and Expenses’. So, it does not look like this spending reduction is the result of any specific animus, but rather part of the overall spending reduction efforts of Republican leadership.
Chemical Safety Issues
Under the Bureau of Land Management (DOI) portion of the Report under the heading of Ecological Services the Report discusses (pg 19) pesticide use, noting:
“This recommendation provides no less than $2,000,000 for pesticide consultations to provide more certainty and guidance to applicants for how chemicals can continue to be available for production of food and fiber in the United States.”
Under the EPA portion of the Report, there are three separate chemical safety discussions.
On pg 59, under the heading ‘Chemical Reviews’ the Committee discusses their expectation for new chemical reviews under TSCA. In particular: “The Committee continues to encourage the Agency to develop improved outreach and guidance so that submitters understand information needs, processes, and requirements prior to and during submission of pre-manufacturing notices.”
Under the same heading the Report discusses establishing occupational exposure limits, encouraging the EPA to “to enhance coordination with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and strongly encourages the Agency to consider and incorporate relevant limits established by the OSHA and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health as well as applicable standards and regulations related to workplace practices.”
On page 60, under the heading ‘IRIS Program Integrity’, the Committee discusses on going issues with the EPA’s Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS), including failure to implement recommendations from 2014 National Academy of Sciences report. It goes on to note:
“The Committee directs that no IRIS assessment shall be used, developed, finalized, peer reviewed, or issued for chemical substances under review by program offices outside of the Office of Research and Development. Further, no IRIS assessment shall be finalized that has a reference dose, reference concentration, or inhalation unit risk at or below background concentration levels in air, water, soil, or sediment.”
Proposed Amendments
Back on September 22nd, the House Rules Committee solicited amendment proposals for HR 4821, There have been 258 amendments submitted to the Committee. None of those amendments deal with cybersecurity issues or chemical safety issues. Interestingly, 22 separate amendments were proposed reducing the salary of various agencies’ executives to $1.
Moving Forward
The House Rules Committee had been scheduled to hold a rule hearing in this bill on Tuesday when the House was reduced to chaos by the vacation (okay that is not the real word that applies, but it came to mind and it sounds good) of the Speakership. Sometime after the House votes in a new Speaker (and some Chairs get shuffled, maybe), this hearing will get heard. Unfortunately, those changes will not address the underlying problems that I outlined in June in my ‘Coming FY 2024 Spending Bill Logjams’ post. In fact, I suspect that they have just gotten worse as there will be less incentive for the new Republican leadership to compromise with the Democrats on conference versions of the bill.